EVALUATION OF THE CONVERGENT VADILITY AND REPRODUCIBILITY OF THE INTERNATIONAL CLASSIFICATION OF FUNCTIONING, DIABILITY AND HEALTH (ICF) CORE SET TO ASSESS PHYSICAL HEALTH OF COMMUNITY-DWELLING OLDER ADULTS
International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. Validation Studies. Aging.
Introduction: Aging is characterized by being a multifactorial process, associated with increased vulnerability and impairment of physical health, which is associated with adverse outcomes in the elderly. In the search for a multidimensional and standardized instrument to evaluate the physical health of the elderly, Ruaro (2014) developed a Core Set of ICF, which seeks to evaluate all aspects of physical health in a single instrument. However, it is necessary to know its validity in relation to measures used to evaluate physical health and its reproducibility so that its use can be indicated. Objective: To evaluate the convergent validity of the Core Set for assessing the physical health of the elderly in relation to validated measures for the evaluation of this domain in the elderly, as well as their reproducibility. Methods: The present study is characterized by being of the transverse type. The population was composed of community-dwelling older adults from Santa Cruz, Rio Grande do Norte. We included 101 older adults ages 60 years-older or more, of both sexes, and excluded those with cognitive impairment. Participants were evaluated through valid measures of physical health: handgrip strength, physical performance with Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB), and physical activity level with International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). The Core Set of the ICF was also applied, which consists of 30 categories (14 for body functions, 4 for body structures, 9 for activity and participation, and 3 for environmental factors). To evaluate reproducibility, the core set was reapplied after 5-8 days of the first evaluation. The association between the results of the core set and the other research instruments was evaluated through the Anova One-Way, Student's T tests for independent samples, and Pearson`s correlation test. The reproducibility was evaluated using the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC). In all steps we considered a 5% alpha and 95% CI. Results: It was observed that the higher the level of physical activity in the IPAQ, the lower the index of injury in the domain body functions and in the construct performance of the domain activity and participation. For the SPPB, it was noted that the better the results, the lower the injury index in the body functions domain, the construct performance of the domain activity and participation, and use of assistive devices. The higher handgrip strength, lower the index of injury in the body functions domains, body structures, and activity and participation, in the two constructs, and the categories related with use of drugs and aid devices. The ICC analysis indicated good reproducibility for most of the domains evaluated with ICC ranging from 59 to 95. Final considerations: The results show that the core set is related to valid measures of physical health evaluation in older adults and present good reproducibility, indicating that it is a valid instrument to assess physical health of older adults.